Still Blooming After All These Years

Great-grandfather's mums are blooming again this year. I transplanted these from a pot into the ground. Check this post.

There are still chrysanthemums in a pot outside the gate. Here they are today:


They are in the second pot between miniature bamboo and Mexican heather. The mums are blooming, but they're scraggly. We had a very hot, dry summer this year. (The Mexican heather did much better than the mums and I did!) Click on the labels below for more posts about chrysanthemums. There are chrysanthemum festivals and competitions here.

Missed the Gingko

We didn't get out to see the gingko trees this year. Have a look at older posts by clicking on the label below. Click on this photo to enlarge it.

Happy Labor Thanksgiving!

Click on the label below for older posts. And see what Kids Web Japan has to say about it here.

Our View Saved!

We kept our eyes on the height of the rooftops of the new houses waiting to see if they were going to block our view of Mt. Fuji. They don't! The clouds lifted for a while this morning and we saw we still had our view.

Houses Going Up

The houses are going up fast.

We're hoping the rooftops will not reach to the top of those poles!

Transplanting

This 85 year old farmer transplanted some broccoli seedlings today. At least I think it's broccoli. I didn't interrupt him to ask. I just watched him dig up the seedlings in one area of his field to transplant here.

He made a hole with one hand,

placed the seedling in the hole with the other hand,

and pressed the dirt around it with both hands.

When the tray was empty he went back to get more. He stopped along the way to look at other vegetables.

Using a hand tool, he dug up more seedlings to transplant. He used this tiller to prepare the soil, but he has touched every seed, seedling, plant and vegetable in his field. He does all the work himself. His wife sometimes helps in the field. She usually stays at the vegetable stand.

He transplanted this whole section. He covered up the tiller at the end of the day.

He still has more seedlings to transplant.

Note the shape of his footprint. Click on the photo to enlarge it. When these vegetables are ready in the winter, he will sell them at his vegetable stand. Click on "vegetable stands" in the labels to see other posts. Click here to find out what it really is.

Found

I disturbed this caterpillar when I replaced the morning glories with fall plants. It will be a hummingbird moth. I thought it had already taken off but it didn't. It ate the morning glories and then went under the soil in the planter.

This is what it looked like before it went underground. In the middle of September, it was green. Sorry, this is a photo of a pooping caterpillar. Or is it? I thought that was its mouth.

Soon, it turned brown and black.

It turned black and then went underground. I saw it wriggling around on the ground trying to move the soil. I put it back in the planter.

I disturbed this slug when I added flowers to the pot near our entrance. I think it's going to be a Japanese rhinoceros beetle. Sorry, this photo is blurry because there wasn't much light. I was gardening in the early evening. I put this back under the soil, too.

New Light Bulb

There was only one kind of light bulb available at our local grocery store today. This kind. It's more efficient than the old ones. It was more expensive, but it should last longer. The old light bulb is near the bottom of the photo. The new one is more opaque. You can't see through it.

Unless you hold it up against the light. This bulb is much heavier than the old ones.

The old light bulb is on the right. You can see the filament at its base.

Our View

Four houses will stand where the community gardens were. See the new fences? And the portable potty? Our view of Mt. Fuji from the roof garden may be gone. It depends how tall the houses are.

Japanese Halloween Treat

This is the first time I found Halloween-shaped glutinous rice cakes filled with bean paste at our neighborhood grocery store. Yum!

A purple ghost and a jack-o-lantern.

August Morning Glory

It was actually purple.

65th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima

Mt. Fuji made an appearance again today. This time at sunset.

For the first time, the United States sent a representative to attend the memorial service in Hiroshima.

Kids Peace Station

Kids Web Japan--atomic bombing

Click on the labels below for past posts.

Hot Dog Buns

Look closely. See the difference? Japanese hot dog buns are sliced open on top of the bun. Not on the side. I have been meaning to post this for years. Can't believe it's taken so long to get a photo. We don't eat hot dogs very often. They are rarely available at our store!

N.B. The red and blue lettering on the bag says "hot dog roll" in Japanese katakana, The script used for foreign words.

Kids Web Japan--katakana

Tennis Court Lights & Mt. Fuji

So glad the new lights at the newly remodeled tennis courts are on the left. Mt. Fuji is on the right. Can you see Mt. Fuji through the haze? Usually we're not able to see it during summer. We're losing our view of it little by little anyway. Buildings are going up. Wires are draped across. Click on the photo to enlarge it. The sunset is highlighting the new tennis light poles.

Another sunset picture from a different direction. Looks like a heart cloud.

Gift from a Funeral

These miso soup bowls were wrapped more neatly than this when they arrived. I unwrapped them and then decided to take a picture of them in the box.

We attended the funeral in the spring, but the gift arrived in summer. There are sakura blossoms on the bowls.

The bowls are microwave and dishwasher safe.

Tanabata

Check old posts for tanabata. I forgot to do it this year! The children are older now and aren't that interested, but Papa and Baba and Aunt wrote their wishes.

Tea House

Entrance to a large tea room.

An entrance to a small tea room on the other side of the larger entrance. That is a small wooden door. One must crawl through to enter.


A window screen.